When Martyn Ware and Craig Marsh left Human League in 1980, they formed Heaven 17 to present their own take on future-pop, while establishing the British Electric Foundation as a production team. The latter’s first release was a cassette of electronic instrumentals called Music For Stowaways, before they struck an increasingly successful seam with Music Of Quality And Distinction.
With MQD the duo placed songs they’d grown up with in electronic settings to be sung by an (almost) all-star cast, including Tina Turner (before resuscitating her career with Let’s Stay Together), Billy McKenzie, Sandie Shaw, Paul Jones and, wittily for the time, Gary Glitter. The album’s success allowed for a second volume, seeing Tina and Billy joined by Chaka Khan, Terence Trent D’Arby, Mavis Staples, Billy Preston, Tashan and Green Gartside for further exercises in soft-focus 80s sheen and crashing beats.
It’s ironic that music made around 30 years ago, purporting to represent the future with sonic technology, is now one of the most popular strains of nostalgia worship. The right audience will lap up this set, which marries both MQD volumes (with bonus backing tracks and a cappellas), plus the original cassette album on CD for the first time, and a highly-promising, Mavis Staples-sung taste of the upcoming Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume 3: Dark.
